In many industrial processes, a mixture of solids and liquids are produced which must be separated to recover either a solid or the liquid or both as the product of the process. Particularly in the case in which the solid is a crystallized salt obtained from supersaturating the liquid, e.g., sulfate salts, there is a substantial problem in separating the solid from the liquid, obtaining a solid with good material handling properties, and minimizing the amount of energy required to do so. Furthermore, if a solid is precipitated in too fine a particle size, then additional problems result in converting this to a suitable use. For example, mixed fertilizers using a sulfate salt with too fine a particle size segregate on blending and cause problems when spread by ground spreading equipment. In many instances, this fine particle size product must be first pelletized and then used in such spreading equipment. However, dust formation from the pellets is still a problem. In addition, because of the volume of materials involved in the production of heavy inorganic salts, the equipment must be as simple as possible and as reliable as possible for maintenance free use. A common solution to the problem of separating the liquids and the solids is to dry the solids as a partially dewatered mixture in such things as ovens. The oven drying is expensive and also may cause problems in the emission of fine particle dust. In addition, other processes such as water purification require particle classifying and drying of large volumes of sludges which may not necessarily be themselves a product but which must be removed from the water purification system. The cost of drying these solid materials for disposal or reuse is a substantial part of the overall treatment cost.